Stop and Stare
by Panic Abandon
Summary: Her bittersweet memories; she reminices. His plotless thoughts; he wanders incessantly. When time begins to stop for two people, what does it mean? What does it want?


**A/N**: Hey guys! I'm new on the scene (And by _scene_ I mean **FF**!) (: So, for most people who might recognize this story, _yes_ I _**am**_ Hero from **AFF**! I've been lurking around the site to see what kinds of smutty content I could get away with (hurhurhur JUST KIDDING...maybe :P ) and I think I'll get along just fine ^^' Unfortunately, I must disappoint because this is merely a **oneshot **(No smut :/ ) of which I am currently turning into a full-blown story! (Cough! Which will start out as **SaiSaku!** Woo woo!) This one is **ShikaSaku, **so run along now, all you **SasuSaku** lovers! That's not how I roll! Unless it's _damn _good. But if you're interested, well then…I leave you to it :3

**BTW**! I believe this short story falls under the category of A/U, because of the non-existent war (Alternate universe?) Alternate reality, psh whatever. So as far as they're concerned _**in**_ _**this **__**oneshot**_, our pairing has never met each other…

Enjoy~

**Stop and Stare**

"_People are always busying themselves with easily imagined things…"_

Beneath a canopy of cascading green leaves, Shikamaru Nara lifted his head to survey the twilight. Shades of creamy hues blended over the expanse of the horizon, bleeding into a canvas of deep indigos and purples. Stars dotted the lower regions of the darkening sky, giving off the tiniest twinkles of light, as they adopted the night shift and readied it for the moon.

Tawny eyes finally lowered from the scenic portrait, just as nature had put its finishing touches on the picturesque view. Another day had come and gone by so swiftly, only lingering upon the final hour as if it desired him to witness its last fading moment, just as he desired to witness it. Time seemed to contradict its own standards these days, hanging on to seconds for just a bit longer than he thought was normal. It seemed as though Mother Nature was trying to captivate him, to steal his breath with the very essence of her craft, whenever his life would ever give him the opportunity to pause for a glance.

_Work. Duty. Responsibility._

Things which had suddenly come to matter to him, when they should have long ago.

The dark-haired shinobi leaned back against the expansive trunk of the tree behind him, and rested his head against it. He attempted to recall to memory, the point in his life where the complex wonderment of life and living blurred into an obscure line, to where he'd begun to carry out his existence in the precarious manner that all shinobi did. All cloud-gazing and incessant day dreaming had come to an inconspicuous halt. No more discouraging grumbles of how this and that were a drag, or how he couldn't care less.

Somewhere along the course of adulthood, Shikamaru had become just another man; another person who had dropped aside the counter productiveness of wondering why the sun rose, or why the earth turned. None of these things were meant to so long distract a shinobi; or any one person, for that matter. Life was meant to be lived; not studied. Enjoyed; not questioned.

It had taken him a little longer than the average person to realize this, but Shikamaru was in the right frame of mind, now. The world in which he lived could only accost someone who could live blithely today, and die tomorrow without a thought regarding whether he or she could have done anything differently. That was just one of the many principles that a shinobi had to live by. And a shinobi; that's just what he was.

So, then…why? Why, everyday, did he find himself here under the star-riddled sky full of questions that he'd abandoned in the former?

The wiser nin sighed and closed his eyes, allowing the glow of the rising moon to cast over his lids. Maybe it was time to give them all an answer and move on.

**XxX**

Chartreuse eyes stared up thoughtfully at the same altering sky, widening in awe as the moon slowly transcended the sun. The spherical glowing orb painted against the indigo hue reminded her of the sentimental piece of art designed by a friend of hers who aspired to become a true artist. Just earlier that evening, the young man and Sakura had sojourned the sandy expanse of Konoha's most luxurious beach, her friend having convinced her to come along to behold the artistry of nature's final touches on a day's end, while he painted it carefully on a tangible canvas.

His replication and the authentic, sky-bound masterpiece before her were nearly an epitome, and he thanked her for comparing them as so. But Sai was just a little too modest to realize it was the truth. With a small, parting kiss to the fair woman's cheek, the artist collected his work and left Sakura to admire the canvas of nature that would, forever continue to change.

Within the blink of an eye, the moon had stolen away behind the bundle of transparent clouds. Sakura sighed and pulled the pendulous blonde sunhat down with both hands to fend off the slight, chillful breeze that meant to play in her rosy tresses. "So much for a view like that," she mumbled, and turned away from the shallow edge of the reflective, rippling ocean.

The days during the autumn in Konoha were, more often than not, comfortably luke warm, but the temperature would descend to a considerable chill after the sun had set behind the sea. Sakura had known this, while willfully putting on the two piece swimsuit, an ultimately mistaken decision that Sai had all but grudgingly protested against. "I have invited you to enjoy the remains of the night with me while I paint, not watch you prance around in those disgracefully appealing scraps of fabric you call, 'swim wear'," the artist had said. Sakura had simply laughed at her emotionally indecisive friend's discomposure, and did just so.

Now, here she was, shivering in her own arms as the night breeze mercilessly assaulted her with the gentlest of gusts that caused all parts of her body, clothed or not, to goose bump and become numb to the bone.

The pink-haired woman turned and brisked across the powdery white sand, bare feet almost sinking in the profoundity of the fine white grains. She returned to the place where Sai had once laid out his art tools to paint, and bent down to retrieve her black sarong. Sakura tied the thin material around the lithe curves of her waist in a knot, and readjusted any misplaced material clothing her partially exposed body. She smiled as she ran her thumbs beneath the straps of the black bikini top, and tightened the ribbony bows on either hip that tied the mismatched green bottoms. It'd been the first of many years since she'd worn the garments, for reasons she felt nostalgic by simply recalling them.

It'd been just the three of them back in that day, a motley crew called seven; team seven. And they, like so many of the other shinobi trios, had become so inseparable over the length of five or six years, that one would hardly go one way, without the other two in tow. They had grown together, learned together, and had figuratively become one. It was so fascinating how a threesome of unlikely kids had happened upon how well they could relate, and indulge in simple terms of granted life pleasures.

_It was on that day, that the three of them had ventured the streets of Konoha, relieved of any shinobi missions or work on a Saturday afternoon. With the happy-go-lucky, blue-eyed blonde on her left, and Konoha's coveted, obsidian-eyed, arrogant raven on her right, the pinkette was ruffling the sunny locks of Naruto Uzumaki, when an idea had come to his mind._

"_Let's go to the beach!" Naruto exclaimed, leaping up and down in a manner that betrayed his excitement. Sasuke had given his trademark, "Hn," accompanied by a smirk that told of his approval. The three of them raced down the scorching pavement in bare feet, Naruto dragging her along with a tell-tale grin on his handsome, boyish face. They had nearly come to the turn off that lead to the entrance of the beach, feet padding against the cemented sidewalk, when Sakura gasped abruptly. Startled, Naruto gripped his female team mate's hand, and the two boys looked back at her with identical expectant expressions._

"_What's wrong, Sakura?" Naruto had asked, with his light blue eyes wide and reflecting a near child-like curiosity. Sakura turned her emerald eyes to stare unblinkingly at the rolling ocean that descended the slight hill of the sandy, white beach._

"_I, uh…don't have a swimsuit," she admitted rather sheepishly. Of course, what had they expected? It wasn't like she just wore one under her clothes, though the truth was, she didn't own one at all…_

_Sasuke had been the one with the clever idea, she recalled. All she could remember thinking was that she was definitely going to beat him to a pulp for such a suggestion, though she never got around to it._

"_Then, we'll just have to get you one," the dark haired boy had smirked, and before Sakura could verbally dismiss the idea, her male companions were taking her up by either arm, and dragging her into the nearest clothing shop along the strip of cluttered buildings, adjacent to the beach._

_Storming into the small swim wear store and ignoring the nonplussed growls of the clerk behind the checkout counter, team seven hauled their cherry blossom around in search of the perfect swim suit. After about ten minutes and a brief argument over whose choice was better, Sakura had snatched a bottom from Naruto, and a top from Sasuke along with a black sarong, and proceeded to the checkout area to purchase the mismatched garments. Neither boy complained about their female companion's impulsive decision, and with that, they set out to resume the trek to their destination for the day._

_It had been a little cloudy that afternoon, but the sunset at the end of the evening was what made the abhorrent weather all worthwhile. Sakura remembered lying on the sand on her stomach, watching her two boys give chase, random contours of their masculine forms outlining with a golden glow, and leaving the rest of their lithe bodies bathed with shadows. Sakura, with her skin so fair and burn-prone had taken refuge under the shade of a beach umbrella and a sun hat to guard her face. _

_Simply watching Sasuke and Naruto push and shove each other across the expanse of the shallow waves was entertainment enough, but when the two had decided to hoist her over their shoulders and dump her into the cold ocean water, the game was on. By the end of the day, all three of them were drenched laughing and entangled in the sand, lying beneath the stars._

The sentiment of the memory was so strong, that Sakura could almost smell the faintest traces of masculine scent mixed with the salt of the sea.

The pink-haired woman let out a reminiscent sigh, as a shiver quaked through her body, brining her back to the reality of the present. The place where her boys no longer existed, and all she was left with was a few articles of clothing and a memory.

For long ago, had they been stolen from her on the front lines of war.

_War; hate. Death; regret._

It was within the very moment of her best friends' terminal breaths that Sakura had sobered up to adulthood. She'd known well that the life of a shinobi was a precarious one, and to live in that way, one had to live with an earnest smile and die in the very same manner. But losing the only things that were precious to her heart had almost torn all sense of meaning away from her life. Sakura found herself wondering how the people she'd spent what she felt was an eternity with, could suddenly up and vanish from her life to leave her world so devastatingly bare. All the moments they had spent together seemed to dissipate from her memories in the same way she'd watched the light of life leave their eyes.

From that day on, Sakura Haruno had succumbed to grieving abandon in a debatable regard of her own existence. The fine line drawn between life and living thus became blurred, until she'd chanced upon the artist who had generously enlightened her.

Sai had taught her how to re-embrace life, and to appreciate every moment of beauty with the likelihood that she would only see it once; and only once. The young man had redeemed Sakura's ability to laugh (though he had a fascinatingly dry and morbid way of doing so) and smile, and exposed her to the more naturistic side of life and eternal beauty that continued to transcend itself in unfathomable ways, with each passing day. Her resentment of life having taken away the lives that she felt could have belonged to her alone slowly dissolved with time, and again, Sakura's heart became whole.

Her admiration for the complex beauty of life became more and more profound, to a point where she constantly resolved to wondering and guessing plotlessly at it all. Her curiosity could never truly lead her to a conclusion that no other had not attempted to conceive. Still, she couldn't help but tumble into incessant thoughts and marvel terrifically and Sai assured her that things would be alright, and there would be no ultimate harm in doing so.

_Things are alright_, Sakura decided.

She removed the straw hat from her head and allowed the silky threads of her hair to sway in the breeze, while she tousled them idly. The former kunoichi was just settling the hat atop her head again, when she spotted something in the distance that blended too well with the scenery. Sprawled out comfortably in the sand beneath a leafy tree, was a man staring up at the stars. Sakura's brows arched with curiosity, and with one hand held against the hat over her head, she took an apprehensive step forward; and then another.

**XxX**

The sound of the gentle splash of waves accompanied by the repetitive chirp of cicadas was nearly enough to lull Shikamaru Nara into sleep; in fact, it had. Slowly, he opened his eyes and blinked a few times before his vision allowed him to clearly behold a dark sky dusted with stars. The comatose shinobi lifted his arms from the imprinted sand, bending them experimentally while flexing his fingers until the minute jabs of pins and needles ceased assault on his nerves.

Shikamaru threw the back of one hand over his forehead as his mouth opened wide to give way to a great yawn. His movements still felt sluggish from his recent slumber, and just as his mind accelerated to its normal pose of fleeting thoughts, he sat up, alert at the deafening snap of a branch being broken nearby him.

"Who's there?" he demanded, sitting up and willing himself to his feet. The ponytailed nin stumbled ungracefully at first, but quickly righted himself and turned around.

"It's not really the greatest idea to sleep on the beach," came the reply of a playful, feminine voice. Shikamaru rubbed at his eyes with backs of his hands a time or two, a bit perplexed at the sight of the pink-haired woman standing before him. She studied him curiously with round, emerald eyes and a few seconds went by before the nin realized he'd been staring for too long, when a soft flush of red tinted her cheeks.

"S-sorry…"she apologized, an embarrassed smile of sorts tracing up on her lips, as she placed with the garment tied around her slender waist. "I,uh…went for a swim earlier."

Shikamaru eyes followed the movements after the release of the material, watching her hands half-consciously travel over the toned, fair flesh of her belly and coming to thread fingers together just beneath her breasts.

"That's…fine," he mumbled, dark brows knitting before he shifted his tawny orbs up to meet green ones. His movements became usually calm and languid as he lifted his arms over his head and stretches slightly, before allowing them to fall back down at his sides. "I fell asleep without realizing, I guess…It's been a while since I've done that."

The rosy-haired girl gave a soft laugh. "Really?" she took a step forward, and brushed a short strand behind her ear. "Well, it's not the greatest place to rest unconsciously, but I suppose it does have a really nice view to wake up to, huh?"

"I always used to think so," the dark-haired mom replied, while sliding his hands into the pockets of his blue jonin pants, and lifting his eyes to the starlit horizon. Just for today, he'd traded the green vest and jonin shirt for something more comfortable; a grey t-shirt with his clan's crest on the front.

Sakura lifted her eyes to the sky to follow the man's gaze. Only the obsidian of midnight remained, and she realized how late it was. By now, it just didn't matter. Time had gone by, while she went on plotlessly thinking, and for him, it had gone by while he'd fallen asleep. Sakura found herself giggling softly at their hopeless situation, but became quiet when his tawny eyes turned with a subtle hint of scrutiny, as they came to rest on her own.

"What's so funny?" he asked, his voice a low pleasant hum. The former kunoichi shrugged her shoulders slightly, and allowed her body to fall into the soft sand of the beach. The man looked down at her, apprehension betraying his unreadable countenance, before deciding to do the same. He sat beside her, crossing his legs while resting his hands, folded on top of his ankle. The two of them sat in a long juncture of silence, with thoughts unknown to one another, while staring out at the murky ocean glowing with the rippling light of the orbicular, silvery moon reflecting over its wavering surface. Once or twice, Sakura considered saying something, but she found no words that would do just in the serenity of the moment.

Finally, the tawny-eyed nin leaned back with his hands pressing prints into the sand behind him, and dropped his gaze to the ground in front of him. He looked to Sakura out of the corner of his eye, as if unsure of whether she was capable of hearing him, or if she was too far gone. When her eyes turned back to him, she tilted her head and her jade eyes glinted and eclipsed with a hint of light.

"Hey…" he mumbled. Sakura's brows knit, but a frown of mock annoyance played on her lips.

"Yeeesss…?"

Shikamaru snorted softly at the absurd expression on the woman's face, and momentarily looked away. "Why are you out here so late? Aren't there things that you should be doing?"

The expression feigning irritation slowly morphed into a genuine look of agitation. "Hey, hey…What about you? I could ask you the same thing, you know?"

Shikamaru nodded once, but he didn't quite have an answer for her. The pinkette leaned forward with her hands folded in her lap, head bent so she could fix him with a still-expectant look. "Well?"

When he didn't answer, she sighed and crossed her arms over herself, face flaring up in a blush as she nearly forgot about her partially clothed state. Not like he was actually looking at her…or even paying attention to her at all, for that matter!

Sakura was about to call it quits on the spacey nin, when he suddenly spoke, willing her to sit back down beside him.

"There are plenty of times where I would put off everything just to spend my days here….I have lots of things to do tomorrow, but I just can't seem to disengage myself from what I'm seeing right now," Shikamaru readjusted himself and brought his arms to rest behind his head, as he laid back in the sand. Sakura stared down at him for a moment, and then decided to follow suit.

"I know what you mean," she replied softly, as her eyes searched the sky. "But I never really took the time, before…it almost feels like it's too late, but…"

Shikamaru waited for her to complete her sentence and turned to look at her, when he suspected that she'd fallen asleep. He was surprised to see her head turned toward him, with her jade orbs staring back into his. A strange sensation of warm chills traveled up the back of the shinobi's neck, and a warm blush touched his face. In a way, she was almost exotic, with her unusual hair coloring and those alluring green eyes. He gazed at her; waited for her to say whatever else he meant to say, and watched the smile on her lips as she turned back to the stars.

"…But for some reason, I feel like every second has started to slow, just to wait for me to notice all of these things. Do you…" she fidgeted with the front tie of her bikini top, before dropping her hand into her lap. "…think that's weird?"

Shikamaru sighed and closed his eyes.

"No," was all he said, before he opened them again. If only she knew just how right she might have been.

"Well, maybe I'm not crazy. But if that's true, then…well, I guess it's not so bad to keep on enjoying the small beauties of life, as long as it keeps on insisting that we do…what…do you think? Does that sound…does that make sense?"

It did make sense.

The ponytailed jonin sat up so suddenly, that it alarmed the girl beside him, and she sat up to say his name, only to realize she did not know it. "What's wrong?" she asked, her eyes wide and betraying the slight flutter of panic in her chest. His shoulders rose and fell in a few rapid shakes, momentarily leading Sakura to believe that he might be crying, until he threw his head back with a chuckle and fell into the sand.

Sakura's heart slowed its hammering inside of her chest, and she let out a breathy sigh, as she lowered herself onto the ground, and twisted her body on its side so she could better survey the man lying beside her. He remained on his back, with those light brown eyes lifted to stare at the sky once again. She had to wonder what he was thinking. Was it something she said that he found humorous? A small frown pulled down at the corners of her mouth and she let out a huff of frustration.

"Sorry you found that so funny…it was just idle thinking,"

"It was more than that," his reply was quick, which surprised her. Of course, it'd been more than that to her, but what could it have possibly meant to him? Her question was never answered, but somehow his words left her feeling satisfied.

Perhaps, they were meant for the both of them.

Shikamaru sighed softly, and closed his eyes as a gentle wind carried over the beach. The woman beside him shivered audibly and as he reached around her in a languid motion, she tucked in without protest beside him. It didn't matter if he knew her name, or if she knew his. All that mattered was the scenic expanse of horizon that stretched endlessly above them. Everything around them was something so complicatedly beautiful, that it was almost certain that no one in the entire world would ever begin to understand it.

And that was fine, Shikamaru decided. As long as they were implored to behold it, he was more than happy to oblige.

_**End~**_

**A/N**_:** So,**_ah ya know. Let me know what you think ^^

Until next time...

Hero~


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